Danny Elfman is a legendary American singer, producer and most importantly a composer who was the lead singer of Oingo Boingo band until 90’s. Danny is known as the favourite composer and songwriter of director Tim Burton.
He is also known as the creator of “The Simpsons” theme. This music theme became popular worldwide.
Early years
He was born as Daniel Robert Elfman on May 29, 1953 in Amarillo in Texas, United States. His family is of Polish and Russian descent and they were Jews. This means that their family is a really interesting mix of cultures and he grew up to be a very tolerant person.
His mother Blossom Elfman was very educated and she was both a teacher and a writer and his father Milton was also a teacher but he was also a member of USAF (United States Air Force).
He grew up in Baldwin Hills and his friends were of all races and ancestry so he wasn’t traditional to this matter. He always surrounded himself with people of all kind.
He often visited the cinema because he loved acting but he was also a great fan of movie music. His favorite composers were Bernard Herrmann and Franz Waxman, also of Jewish descent.
He had a dream of maybe composing one day and little did he know that he’ll become one of the most popular people in the industry.
He had to do something which involved music, so he formed a ska band in high school, which played a combination of Jamaican music and American R&B. He enjoyed making music and decided to devote himself to it.
He lost interest in education, left school and joined his brother Richard who was in France in Europe. He always knew he was going to be outstanding in something, he just didn’t know in what from the start. He found education boring.
He found himself a job as a performer in a musical theater company who used avant-garde elements in their performances.
At the beginning of 70’s, his brother Richard decided it was time to make a more serious move in his career so he created an art group called “The Mystic Knights of the Oingo Bongo”.
Career development
Danny was a part of the group. His brother Richard wanted to become a filmmaker so he made a movie called “Forbidden Zone” which was based on their art group. That’s the time when Danny composed his first movie music. He even had an acting part in the film.
After that, the band changed name, shorting it only to “Oingo Boingo”. Danny became the leader of the group, inheriting this position from his brother. The group gained a part in “Back to School” American comedy film in 1986.
Oingo Boingo was considered as a new wave band and they became widely known for hits like “Dead Man’s Party” and “Weird Science”.
1986 turned out to be a major year for Danny because he was hired by a famous director Tim Burton to make music for “Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure”.
Due his great work and Burton’s satisfaction by it, Tim gave Danny open hands for making music for three hit films: “Ed Wood”, “Sweeney Todd” and “Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children”.
He sang the role in a famous Burton’s “The Nightmare Before Christmas”, the fact that shows how much confidence Tim Burton had in him. He also sang all the roles in “Charlie and The Chocolate Factory”.
1989 was the year he became known throughout the world as a theme song maker for a known cartoon “The Simpsons”.
This gig brought him a lot of attention and a lot of money too. He increased his net worth with over $2 milliom dollars.
In 1995, he joined his friends from Oingo Boingo on their farewell concert and it was organized on Halloween. They wanted to show themselves in their old version so they prepared a horn section on their concert.
In 1997 he composed the music for “Men in Black”. This movie was a big hit and his music was well received amongst the fans of the movies.
He was nominated for Oscar Academy Award for “Good Will Hunting” and “Men in Black” in 1997.
The CD with all the compositions from the movie was released with the movie. By now, he was very into the work he was doing and people already knew a lot about him.
He was the main composer for series “Spider-Man” in 2002.
Burton’s “Edward Scissorhands” is another movie in which Danny had a voice role. He gave voices to Oompa-Loompas in a musical comedy film from 2005 called “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”.
He gained a honorary doctorate he is especially proud of and it was goven to him by the North Carolina School of the Arts.
In 2008 he received an award by IFMCA (International Film Music Critics Association). They have declared him the “Film Composer of the Year”.
He wrote an extraordinary composition for John Mauceri and his Hollywood Bowl Orchestra. It was named “Serenada Schizophrana” and it was released in 2006 by Sony record label. This classical composition gained a lot of positive feedback from fans and serious composers.
He composed some of the music for a superhero film “Avengers: Age of Ultron” in 2015. He especially loved to make exciting music for action music. He was the main composer for “Fifty Shades” movie series.
He was involved in composing music for Cirque du Soleil and he produced music for all their shows at the beginning of 2013. He won both Emmy and a Grammy Award for his work on Batman. The Emmy he won was for the theme of Desperate Housewives in 2005.
In 2005 he also won the Phoenix Film Critics Society Awards for Best Original Score in “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”.
Personal life
His biggest role models come from all sort of musical genres. He loves Bartók, Orff, Prokofiew, Ravel, Strawinski and Tchaikovsky.
He has great respect for Soviet composers and their work. Throughout the time, he developed a special music taste that left a huge impact on his work.
He loves music from a Sci-fi film “The Day the Earth Stood Still’ which was composed by Bernard Herrman. He says that that were his first favorite movie compositions. His first teenage love was Kim Gordon, a member of Sonic Youth, NYC rock band.
He married Bridget Fonda, a famous American actress, in 2003 and they have a son named Oliver. Oliver means “elf army” in English. He is the father of Lola and Mali, which he has from his earlier relationships and not with his wife Bridget.
He is a known atheist and calls himself a cynicologist. This was a shock to his parents because they were Jewish.
He supported Barack Obama in 2008 and expressed great unsatisfaction with Sarah Palin, a known republican and her politics.
His health was damaged during his longtime work with Oingo Boingo – he damaged his hearing and decided not to perform with the band anymore. Although he did a few gigs but only wuth a real orchestra.
He has many nicknames. One of the most interesting is Red-Wolf Elfmann, because of his tan and hair colour. He used to be teased about being a ginger.
After spending a few years in France while he was young, he went to Africa for a few years. He contracted with malaria there, after which he returned to United States, in order to restore his health entirely.
He loves animals, especially dogs and it is known that he has a dachshund as a pet. He stated that he would love to have much more pets, but he can’t since he has a pretty busy schedule.
Quick summary
Full name: Daniel Robert Elfman
Date of birth: May 29, 1953
Birthplace: Amarillo, Texas, United States
Age: 65
Profession: singer, songwriter, composer, producer
Height: 178 cm
Weight: NA
Net Worth: $75 million
